Thursday, January 04, 2007

President Bush has quietly claimed sweeping new powers to open Americans' mail without a judge's warrant, the Daily News has learned.

The President asserted his new authority when he signed a postal reform bill into law on Dec. 20. Bush then issued a "signing statement" that declared his right to open people's mail under emergency conditions.

That claim is contrary to existing law and contradicted the bill he had just signed, say experts who have reviewed it.

I await the response of the Libertarians. Will it be more Republican't ass-covering, or will they finally, finally realize that the Chimp is a bigger threat to their cherished freedoms than every Democrat on the face of the earth rolled together? Personally, based on their showing for actual Liberty so far, I'm betting most of them roll with the Republican't ass-covering, but it warms me in my middle age to believe that there may someday be a straw that breaks that particular camel's back.

Wanna bet there's some lame-ass Bushite who will tell me, with a straight face, that the Chimp's Decidering to read mail without a warrant is to "protect freedom"?

How can anyone justify this? The way the Chimp snuck it through on one of his extraconstitutional signing statements shows that even he can't justify it - although now that he's been found out I'm sure he'll give it the ol' Harvard C-student college try.